Now Is the Time to Fulfill Your Dream of Becoming a Lawyer!

Western Michigan University Cooley Law School’s President and Dean, Don LeDuc, publishes commentaries on our website about the Law School, legal education, legal employment, and related topics. This post summarizes President LeDuc’s commentary highlighting the recent surge in lawyer employment in the U.S.

Football Coach George Allen famously said, “The future is now.” Those considering law school should listen to Coach Allen. Here’s why.

In 2014, the number of employed lawyers increased by 40,000, or 3.66 percent, compared to 2013, according to a just-released U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics report. Conversely, the number of unemployed lawyers fell by 8,000.

This means that improving economy in 2014 clearly supported not only the increased number of law school graduates, but also reduced the number of lawyers previously unemployed by one-third. The unemployment rate among lawyers is now 1.2%, far below the national unemployment rate of 5.5% and likewise the lowest lawyer unemployment rate since before 2008. And the unemployment rate for lawyers in the fourth quarter of 2014 was 0.6%.

Summer 2015 will see about 3,000 fewer law school graduates entering the job market than did so in 2014. At the same time, increasing numbers of lawyers will retire due to aging and the recovery of retirement portfolios.

The combined trend of fewer graduates and more retirements will continue for at least another three years, creating an increasingly favorable employment outlook.

Now is the time for those whose dream is to become a lawyer to disregard the blog-fog and look at the clear employment picture that the Bureau of Labor Statistics has painted. That dream’s future is now.